I think Vince Wilfork, Kyle Love and Rob Ninkovich are near definites at this point in the process. Nink has been a little banged up at practice, but when he’s healthy he’s always out there with the first team.

The other starting DE spot is a real battle between Trevor Scott, Jermaine Cunningham and Chandler Jones. All three players have been getting first team reps, and I’m sure a lot of the decision will be dependent on how those players fare during the preseason games.

If there was a gun to my head, I’d guess that Scott gets the starting job in the beginning of the season, but Jones will take it over as the season progresses. All of those players should get a lot of reps on defense though. I believe this defensive line will be rotating like we’ve never seen before. I also think we’ll see a lot of different formations and looks within the front seven. DEs standing up, DEs playing DT, LBs playing DL, etc.

Chandler Jones bulked up this offseason, so him playing more of an inside role isn’t out of the question. When he was at Syracuse, he was very good at getting after the quarterback from the inside using his strength and his length.

To start the year, I think he’ll be a super reserve/dime specialist. His role will increase as players get hurt or when guys are struggling. Moore proved last year that he’s a very talented, under the radar player and he’s done nothing to detract from that this offseason. From what I’ve seen he’s been having one of the strongest camps of all the Patriots DBs.

Moore’s one of the very valuable versatile guys who has the ability to play the slot or play outside. He also showed that he can play safety in a pinch last year when he was yanked off the practice squad and thrust into a starting role.

Moore is one of many things I’ll be looking forward to watching during the 2012 preseason and regular season games. FOOTBALL!!

On a scale of 1-10? 1-100? On a scale of not happy, happy, very happy? I appreciate the questions guys, but you really need to get as specific as possible.

I’ll say “very happy.”

Sidebar: I’m looking forward to watching Jake Locker this year. I was very high on him coming out in 2011, but like anyone, I have some doubts. As most of you know, I’m a huge University of Washington fan, so I’ll certainly be wishing him success, but you’d have to be crazy to not have some concerns over his accuracy.